r 



A 



Short TREATISE 



V r THE 



V I R TU ES 



O F 



Dr. RAT EMAN's 



PECTORAL DROPS: 



Ihe Nature of the Diftemperr They 



(MTc, and the Manner of Their Operation. 



rublifr.'J by the K I N G'$ Letter Patents undS 

 the Great Stal ot CrtJt Britain. 



The Seal of fe, 



CJ each Bottle. 



To be Soli ouly b^ Jamti Wallait-, in AV»-Jork 

 Reprinted 1/ J Fitfr /--^r, ia Sn^Ytrt, 



- ~ ~'*- 





Figui-e 5. — Pamphlet, Dated 1731, on Behalf of 

 Bateman's Pectoral Drops. It was published by 

 John Peter Zenger in New York. Original preserved 

 in the New York Academy of Medicine Library. 

 {Smithsonian photo 44286-Z).) 



approved of for the Cholick, and all Manners of 

 Pains in the Bowels, Flu.xes, Fevers, Small-Po.\, 

 Measles, Rheumatism, Coughs, Colds, and Restless- 

 ness in Men, Women, and Children; and particularly 

 for several Ailments incident to Child-bearing 

 Women, and Relief of youna; Children in breeding 

 their Teeth." 



Emlen's venturesomeness may have lain in the fact 

 that he was not onlv a retailer, but also an agent for 



the British manufacturer, for he cited the 

 names of those who sold Godfrey's Cordial 

 in nearby towns. Even at that, this appeal, 

 consisting merely of a list of illnesses, lacked 

 the cleverne.ss of contemporary English 

 nostrum advertising. In the whole span 

 of the Boston Neivs-Lelter, beginning in 1704, 

 it was not until 1763 that a bookstore 

 pulled out the stops with half a column of 

 lively prose in behalf of Dr. Hill's four un- 

 patented nostrums." It seems a safe as- 

 sumption that not only the medicines but 

 the verbiage were imported from London, 

 where Dr. Hill had been at work endeavor- 

 ing to restore a Greek secret which "con- 

 \'erts a Glass of Water into the Nature and 

 Quality of Asses Milk, with the Balsamick 

 .Addition. . . ." 



The infrequency of extended fanciful 

 promotion in behalf of the old English 

 nostrums in American newspaper adver- 

 tising may have been compensated for to 

 some degree in broadside and pamphlet. 

 .■\ critic of the medical scene in New York 

 in the early 1750's asserted that physicians 

 used patent medicines which they learned 

 al)out from "London quack bills." This 

 doctor complained, these were often their 

 only reading matter.''" Such a judgment 

 may be too severe. Certainly it is difficult 

 to validate today. Such pamphlets and 

 broadsides do appear in Ainerican archival 

 collections. The Historical .Society of Penn- 

 sylvania contains a 2-page Turlington 

 broadside,^' while the Folgcr Shakespeare 

 Library in Washington has an earlier 46- 

 page Turlington pamphlet with testimonials 

 reaching out toward America.** One such certificate 

 came from "a sailor before the mast, on board the 

 ship Britannia in the New York trade," and another 

 cited a woman living in Philadelphia who gave 

 thanks for the cure of her dropsy. 



A broadside in the Warshaw Collection touting 

 Bateman's Drops noted that "extraordinan.' demands 



*' Boston Ntws-Lttter, Boston, November 24, 1763. 



" James J. Walsh, History oj the Medical Society oj the State of 

 .Xew Tork, New York, 1907. 



" Robert Turlington, "Turlington's Balsam of Life," 1755- 

 1757. A later reprint of this same circular is prcser\-ed in the 

 Warshaw Collection of Business Americana. 



** Turlington's Balsam of Lije (sec footnote 15). 



P.M'KR 10: OLD ENGLISH P.ATENT MEDICINES IN AMERICA 



165 



